


An Angel at my table

by Beckymonster



Category: NCIS, Sapphire and Steel
Genre: Drama, Gen, Not Episode Related
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-09
Updated: 2008-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 05:10:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13311216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beckymonster/pseuds/Beckymonster
Summary: She likes to sit on the edge of one of the tables and just listen.





	An Angel at my table

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Jessi, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [ MTAC](https://fanlore.org/wiki/MTAC), an archive of NCIS fanfiction which closed in 2017. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after August 2017. I tried to reach out to all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator (and this work is still attached to the archivist account), please contact me using the e-mail address on [ the MTAC collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/mtac/profile)

  
Author's notes: Crossover with _Sapphire and Steel_. Thanks to Nakeshia and Wiccagirl for support and fact checking. Thanks also to Periwinkle for beta\'ing above and beyond  


* * *

When not on assignment, she tends to come here. If her siblings ever found out about this, they would react with a mixture of disdain and incredulity. All of them, apart from Jet. She would understand; she has never been here, but she would understand if she did. 

She likes to sit on the edge of one of the tables and just listen. If she closes her eyes, she can make herself believe that it’s Steel that talking and not a fragile human who sounds so very painfully like him.

She has so many regrets. 

Her last words to Steel had been full of anger. She had even gone as far as to block her thoughts from him. He was being foolish, stubborn, male. It was a hopeless situation. If Silver had been with them, they might have had a chance of escape from their prison. Instead Steel had come up with a hare-brained scheme to free her. Even though it would mean his… ‘death’. She knew she should have told him the truth but she hadn't. What she did was vent her anger, her fear, at him. She had lied to him; she should have told him… she owed him that. 

In the final analysis, she was sure he knew that she loved him. She felt his whispered declaration of love as he surrendered himself so that she could be free. By the time she found it in herself to reply, he was… gone. It made her feel so very alone, even when she returned to the haven of the other elements. 

When she crossed paths with Doctor Donald 'Ducky' Mallard (as he is called), while on another assignment, her heart broke all over again. The resemblance was... uncanny. Steel was a man in his prime, with a beauty that she hadn't seen elsewhere. At least until she had met the good doctor. He was older than Steel had been (age, like time, had no dominion over ones like her) but she could 'see' that he had been as beautiful as her Steel. Still was, especially when he smiled. 

Yet was his voice that cut the deepest. The same warm, velvety tones that had been her constant companion the entire time she had been partners with Steel. When the pain of loss was too great, there were times when she would have willingly returned to that place just to hear him again. Hearing 'Ducky' speak for the first time had been one of those times. 

In spite of that pain, she kept returning to this place in the human realm, simply to listen to that voice. Steel was never one to waste words; she was the diplomatic one, not him. Perhaps if she had told him how much she loved his voice, he might have been... prompted to be more talkative. Not that it mattered now. He was gone and she remained, alone. 

If she was truly honest with herself, it was a form of catharsis, coming to this austere place, deep underground. Listening to the stories told by this human (who would be nothing more than memories and dust in two score years) to the dead shells of humans, beyond hearing, beyond caring. Some made her smile, some made her think of her siblings (all 127 of them) and some made her remember that, despite everything... she was alive. 

"He loved you, you know." 

The words tore her from her reviere with a painful jolt. She glanced up to see that he was, impossibly, looking right at her. It unnerved her. He shouldn't be seeing her at all. There was no one else in the room (save the late Corporal Hammond, lying on the autopsy table) apart than the doctor and herself. Yet, despite everything, it couldn't be any other way. 

His face softened and a small smile appeared there. She is reminded again of how much he is like Steel and then again not. Steel was very similar to his namesake, cold, unyielding, not like the good doctor at all; who is compassion and friendliness. 

"He knew you loved him in return. It was why he did it," he told her. 

The words cut her to shreds. She had never cried over Steel. Not until now. She lets the tears fall unchecked. It's a very human thing to do, but perhaps they have the right idea sometimes.   
It's as she is wiping a tear from her face that she hears the call; she is being assigned. She must return to her work, as Doctor Mallard must return to his. Despite the tears, she is heartened by his words. 

"Thank you," she replies, nodding her head. He smiles back at her, a true smile. It's one that he shares with those that he loves the most. She has seen him flash it at his colleages, the one who reminds her of Jet and the one with the silver hair and Steel's temperament are shown it the most. 

As she vanishes, she presses the hand that bore the tear she'd wiped away onto the autopsy table. The tear transforms into a small sapphire embedded into the steel of the table.   
Ducky notices it later in the day. He touches it and thinks of the mysterious blonde woman who sits there from time to time. The one that he's sure he's met in a previous life.


End file.
